


Sunflower Spirals

by ForTheLoveOf



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Ghost Drifting, M/M, Post-Drift (Pacific Rim), implied pining, in which both of the boys are oblivious about different things, no actual angst but if you're looking for pure fluff this isn't it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForTheLoveOf/pseuds/ForTheLoveOf
Summary: It's the tapping of Hermann's foot that catches his eye first, back on the chopper. A nervous tic that didn't belong there.





	Sunflower Spirals

It's the tapping of Hermann's foot that catches his eye first, back on the chopper. A nervous tic that didn't belong there, like the long fingers Newt knew were clever, much too clever to be toying with the grip of that cane now.

He's feeling sick all of a sudden, chooses to clutch the side of his seat harder, knuckles grinding painfully tight against firm metal alloy.

_They didn't belong there_ and he chances a glance back at Hermann, rim-dyed iris blossoming red now, and he thinks about terrible penmanship and sunflower spirals and all the while the quick, restless tempo serves to remind him that it's never really been like him to be such a romantic. And then it hits him that-

"You came." he says dumbly, and the look Hermann gives him starts puzzled so "You came to find me. You- Hermann, you came _for_  me-"  
but he stops, because Hermann is looking at him like he can't quite believe someone with six PhDs would ever be so dense as to _think_ "Well, with the fate of the world at stake," and it's in the thin fold of his mouth, the narrow strain in his voice now, in the arched eyebrows that Newton can tell- "could you really blame me for not letting you mess it all up?"

Hermann's eyes widen for a moment and he follows their path on instinct, finding his own hand over Hermann's clothed knee at the end of it. He doesn't remember moving, but the pinprick feeling of rough wool under his fingers is familiar and _old_ , thumb following cyclic patterns he's been tracing since childhood-

_It's not him_ and he stills for a moment, knowing Hermann recognises the motion as something undeniably his own, recognises the nervous tapping from his pain-free leg as something undeniably Newton's in turn.

Large pupils turn darker and Newt idly wonders if Hermann realises how he's now inching closer, how his breath has now stopped and the only way Newt knows for sure his heart is still beating is the jumping pulse point on the side of his throat. He himself doesn't shift yet, transfixed by the tender skin there, lost in the seconds between Hermann leaning forward and the start of an awkward stammer he has to remind himself isn't his own.

"Newton, I--"

It breaks in the middle, whatever Hermann wanted to say, whatever Newt knows he'd say, and he _knows_ , that's the thing now he knows-

"You are a good man, Hermann Gottlieb." he says low and closes the distance.

**Author's Note:**

> __ The head of a sunflower exhibits two sets of spirals, one running clockwise and the other anticlockwise.  
> Intriguingly, the number of spirals in one set is related to the number in the other in a special way: the two numbers are always adjacent members of the so-called Fibonacci series. Alan Turing was the first mathematician to suggest that sunflower seed spirals followed the Fibonacci sequence, but sadly died before accumulating enough data to test his theory.  
> In 2012, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester decided to honour Turing's legacy by inviting the public to grow their own sunflowers and submit photographs to aid their research. Researchers who verified the counts on 657 sunflowers provided by citizen scientists reported that one in five flowers did not conform to the Fibonacci sequence, approximating even more complex mathematical patterns. These exceptions are fascinating, since they suggest that the development of a new generation of mathematical models is not only possible, but also necessary in order to adequately represent nature.
> 
> I thought this would be exactly the sentimental sort of tidbit someone like Hermann 'Numbers-are-the-handwriting-of-God' Gottlieb would associate with mathematics, Alan Turing, and queer love.


End file.
